Laurel Brennan is the first woman to serve as Secretary-Treasurer of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO and is one of only seven across the nation.
Laurel is responsible for the organizational budget and other financial obligations of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO. In partnership with President Charles Wowkanech, she develops and implements statewide policies that impact one million union members and their families.
Laurel began her union career as an intern with the New Jersey State Federation of Teachers where she worked on grievances, negotiations and collective bargaining campaigns. Next, she served as an organizer for the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union in Pennsylvania. She become a business agent for the Philadelphia-South Jersey District Council, where she was later elected Assistant Manager. Laurel served as the first woman elected as Secretary-Treasurer of the Southern New Jersey Central Labor Council. She is a member of the National Executive Board of the Coalition of Labor Union Women and a Trustee of the non-partisan Working Families United for New Jersey.
Laurel developed the New Jersey State AFL-CIO’s annual Women in Leadership Development Conference which focuses on how unions help women and how women help unions while at the same time promoting leadership and diversity throughout the labor movement. She has served as an instructor at Penn State University’s Union Leadership Academy and for the AFL-CIO’s annual regional Women’s Summer School, and is a frequent speaker at regional and national forums on women in the labor movement and working family issues.
She serves as a member of the State Advisory Council of Rutgers University, and was appointed by Governor McGreevey to serve on the State Employment & Training Commission Council on Gender Parity in Labor and Education. She was appointed by Governor Corzine to the Police and Fire Retirement System Board of Trustees in 2008. Born in Newark, Laurel was raised in Woodbridge Township, NJ. She and her husband Michael reside in Cherry Hill.
2014 Event Information
CLICK HERE for information about the 2014 Evangelina Menendez Trailblazer Awards Ceremony.
